Eric and Ken

Eric had many co-drivers and navigators during his long motorsport career. But the trips he took with Ken Chambers, and the experiences they shared, ensured that the relationship was more like brothers than just mates.

They were as different as chalk and cheese. Eric was a Yorkshireman though and through, with the characteristics often associated with people from God’s Own County, such as his remarkable sense of understatement (“Well, that was a bit hairy” isn’t the way most people would describe driving at over 100mph around the old banked circuit at Monza. At night. In the fog.)

Ken, on the other hand, was a southerner, neat and tidy with a military bearing and moustache. Whether or not he was privately educated, I don’t know for sure, but that’s the impression he gave – unlike Eric who left school when he was fourteen. Oh, and until the trips he didn’t have the choice vocabulary of fruity swear words that Eric had collected over the years. As you can imagine, some of the situations they encountered soon changed that…

But what stands out in the book is the great relationship between the two. Listening to Eric recount his stories, it seems that they were like a comedy double act.